The invention relates to a mounting system for personal electronic devices, and in particular to a system that provides a wide range of mounting options in the passenger compartment of a vehicle
A variety of products are available whose purpose is to allow hands-free use of personal electronics devices, such as cell phones, PDA's, music players, satellite radios, GPS receivers, and the like, in the passenger compartment of vehicles, such as automobiles, boats or aircraft. Some of these products are device specific, available either from the device manufacturer or third parties, while others purport to be device-universal. A significant drawback of currently available mounting devices is that, whether or not they are designed for one or more devices, they are all limited to one specific mounting placement. For instance, some mounting systems are designed to mount in cup-holders, such as the Belkin TD1-F8Z077 iPod® holder. Other currently available mounting placement options are suction cups to window glass (such as the Arkon SR-053), plugging into a power-point (such as the Arkon CM-983), or clipping to a structure such as an air-vent (such as the Arkon SR-047-SRVC). For any given passenger compartment, none of these options may be convenient, or may only be convenient for one type of device in a specific vehicle, requiring a user to have multiple mounting systems for each device he may own, and different systems for each vehicle he may use. Moreover, many of these mounting systems are not very robust in actual use, and very few of these devices provide for a tidy placement of power cables and the like. For these reasons, customer satisfaction with vehicle electronics mounting systems is, for the most part, low. Furthermore the lack of suitable mounting systems is a safety issue as many currently available devices lead to driver distraction caused by fumbling for loose cords or stray electronic devices.
What is desired is a mounting system sufficiently flexible in mounting placement, that a convenient, robust placement can be obtained for almost any vehicle. What is also desired is this mounting system should further be compatible with virtually any electronic device of hand-held size.
Furthermore, what is desired, is a mounting system that improves ergonomic use and safe operation of a moving vehicle by reducing handling of a personal electronic device to view displays, push buttons, or apply charging cords.